VALENTIN SILVESTROV

 

Symphony No 6

 

SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra / Andrey Boreyko

 

Tracks: 

(1) I. Andantino – Vivace – Allegretto (attacca)

(2) II. Allegro moderato – Commodo (attacca)

(3) III. Andantino – Animato – Adagio – Moderato – Andante (attacca) *

(4) IV. Intermezzo. Larghetto (attacca)                                                         

(5) V. Vivace con moto – Larghetto *

                                                                 

Total time: 54.20

Recommended listening *

 

•   Sixth release in ECM ongoing series of recordings of the great Ukrainian composer 

•   Silvestrov’s Sixth is a defining work – nearly an hour long and patterned on a late-romantic symphony

•   Has a beautiful central Mahlerian slow movement

•   Silvestrov celebrates his 70th birthday in September, so there will be a major focus on him internationally in 2007

•   One of the most individual and original voices from the former Soviet Union

 

Music/Artist background: Alfred Schnittke and Arvo Pärt have both called the Ukrainian Valentin Silvestrov “one of the greatest composers of our time” and he’s certainly a true original. He was one of the first composers from the former Soviet Union to cast aside what might be called the "conventional" gestures of the avant-garde, as well as any sense of formulaic "experimentalism". As he has perceptively noted, "the most important lesson of the avant-garde was to be free of all preconceived ideas – particularly those of the avant-garde." This perspective led to the development of an idiom which Silvestrov - who celebrates his 70th birthday in September - would eventually come to call "metaphorical style" or "meta-music".

The Symphony No 6 offers an impressive synthesis of Silvestrov‘s personal style of “Metamusik": music beyond music, sounds, often verging on silence, eavesdropping on long-lost reverberations. Written in 1994-95 and given a final revision in 2000, it concludes a series of great orchestral works he composed during the 1980s and 90s.  It’s a defining five-part work stretching over 55 minutes and is visably patterned on a late-romantic symphony. Its central slow movement – the symphony’s lyrical climax – recalls the adagietto of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. Silvestrov’s uniquely poetic and dreamlike music is played here with luminosity by the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Andrey Boryeko (who was last heard on ECM conducting Arvo Pärt’s Lamentate).

 

Praise for other Silvestrov recordings on ECM New Series:

Metamusik/Postludium   “There is no doubting the qualities of imagination and the richness of invention... The scoring is wonderfully rich and heavy. The post-Scriabinesque moments are offset by the occasional dreamlike hints of Mahlerian warmth. An undeniably powerful vision... Do investigate this.”  - International Record Review

Requiem for Larissa    “The fervour of its melancholy lament is extraordinary … One of the most affecting and momentous of modern Requiems.” - BBC Music Magazine, CD of the Month / “Totally gripping.” - Choir and Organ

Silent Songs    “An absorbing and ultimately moving experience.” - International Record Review

Misterioso  “Misterioso indeed. And it is not just Silvestrov’s eponymous work that emanates that quality. His Violin Sonata, part of his obsession with a music composed as it were after the death of Music, shares its magical effect of an intense yet ungraspable beauty. Casts a powerful spell and deserves to be widely heard.” - Gramophone

 

Summary:   The sixth release in ECM’s ongoing recordings of the Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov, 70 this year and one of the most individual voices from the former Soviet Union, is a defining work: a massive “late Romantic” symphony with a ravishingly beautiful Mahlerian slow movement that concludes the series of great orchestral works he wrote in the 1980s and 90s. 

 

ECM4765715